India: FIR against 50 celebrities who wrote letter to Prime Minister Modi on mob lynching

Patna: An FIR was lodged in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district against celebrities including Bollywood actress Konkana Sen, director Maniratnam, Aparna Sen, Shayam Benegal, Ramchandra Guha and 45 others, who had written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising concern over the growing incidents of mob lynching, police said on Friday.

According to district police officials, the case was filed in Sadar police station on Thursday on the basis of an order by the local court.

An advocate S. K. Ojha had filed a petition in the Chief Judicial Magistrate court, which after hearing the case ordered police to lodge an FIR against the celebrities.

He said that nearly 50 signatories of the letter were named as accused in his petition in which they allegedly "tarnished the image of the country and undermined the impressive performance of the Prime Minister", besides "supporting secessionist tendencies".

In the letter the celebrities had stated that the lynching of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities must be stopped immediately, while stressing that there was "no democracy without dissent". The letter also had said that "Jai Shri Ram" had been reduced to a "provocative war cry".